Hundreds of customers at a Starbucks in Newington, Connecticut decided to pay it forward by buying the orders for the people behind them in line.

The philanthropic event began around 8 a.m. on Christmas Eve and rolled on for about 12 hours. At that point, about 300 customers got in on the action before the trend continued once more when Starbucks re-opened Christmas Day. To date, about 420 people took part.

"It means a lot people are still looking out for other people and being caring and bringing out the holiday spirit” said customer Kaitlyn Willametz.

The even better news is that there was about $45 remaining from all the orders paid in advance, which was used to treat the first customers who came in on Thursday.